FBI finds scammers impersonating the FBI now one of worst online threats

By Michael Cooney – The 2011 IC3 Internet Crime Report (pdf) issued found that of the 314,246 complaints the IC3 received last year over 14,000 involved scamsters posing as the FBI in one shady online form or another. The 314,246 complaints represent a 3.4% increase over 2010.

Advance Fee Fraud– Criminals convince victims to pay a fee to receive something of value, but do not deliver anything of value to the victim.

Non-Auction/Non-Delivery of Merchandise – Purchaser does not receive items purchased.

Overpayment Fraud – An incident in which the complainant receives an invalid monetary instrument with instructions to deposit it in a bank account and send excess funds or a percentage of the deposited money back to the sender.